The final of the "big 3" E3 press conferences took place yesterday. Nintendo's conference was different to Microsoft's and Sony's as it split the presser into three sections dedicated to consoles (and 1 to a franchise) rather than individual games - this meant there was less information on specific titles, but more of them announced. Regardless, here's a round up of the highlights and my thoughts:
The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary
The conference started with a live orchestra playing a suite of Zelda music accompanied by a video montage to showcase the 25th anniversary celebration of the franchise. It was announced that Link's Awakening DX and Four Swords will be making their way to Nintendo's Virtual Console later this year, and that the new Wii title Skyward Sword will drop sometime during this holiday season, though no footage was shown of any of the games.
It was also announced that a symphony orchestra will be touring across "most regions" playing concerts dedicated to the music of Zelda next year.
Nintendo 3DS Titles
Next up was the 3DS segment of the presser, which showed off a few trailers for upcoming games. Those featured included Mario Kart 3D, Starfox 64 3D, Luigi's Mansion 2, Super Mario 3D and Kid Icarus: Uprising - all of them were announced for release later this year, with Starfox slated for a September release (that game also featured a really neat concept where in multiplayer mode, the 3DS' camera would broadcast the image of your opponent's faces - just like it does in the single player game with the characters - very cool!). Luigi's Mansion 2 was a very surprising addition to the line up, and one that is most welcome; it looks just as fun as the original, and is confirmed to include many new features over its predecessor, including more than one mansion.
Wii U
Now this is what everybody was waiting for, and what took up the bulk of the conference - Nintendo's new home console. What was codenamed Project Café was officially unveiled as Wii U; a brand new HD console that features a very unique controller.
The controller is essentially a tablet computer, with a 6.5" touch screen display surrounded by the usual dual analogue sticks (though they are more akin to the 3DS' circle pad than traditional sticks), directional pad, triggers and face buttons. The main features of the console obviously stem from this additional screen, as was demonstrated in the fact that it allows for continuous play of a game even if the TV channel is switched - that's right, now someone else can watch TV while you're in the middle of a game and you can just switch over to the controller screen to keep playing. Not only that, but the extra screen can be used in the same way the DS' dual screen is; while showing a video demo of Zelda, the action of the main game was unfolding on the big screen while the controller screen had the inventory that could be touched for easy item switching. Other elements that were shown involving the controller involved using it as a Reversi (at least I think it was Reversi...) board, as a platform to launch ninja stars from at targets on the TV and placing it on the floor and using a WiiMote as a golf club to hit the ball that was on the controller screen and off onto the course on the TV.
It all looks very impressive, but it's hard to really see the point in it all, in my opinion. I can see the use in being able to continue games on another screen while someone else wants to watch television, but Sony already showed their capability to do that with the PSVita and its ability to continue saves from the PS3 the day before, and if the original PSP is anything to go by, we may well see some form of remote play application from the portable for the PS3 in the future. Also, the controller looks REALLY uncomfortable and awkward to hold; imagine holding an iPad horizontally for a long period of time... It just doesn't seem to be that easy to keep a hold of for so long, but as I've not actually held one I can't comment on this too much - these are just first impressions.
On the plus side, Nintendo announced a LOT of third party games that will be coming to the Wii U, including the likes of Batman: Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Darksiders II, Lego City Stories (also coming to 3DS) and more, which is great to see after the major lack of them for the original Wii. Oh, and they announced a new Smash Bros. game coming to both the new console and the 3DS! What gameplay they showed of these titles looked very nice graphically and performance-wise; easily on par with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Verdict
This is a tough one to judge. Yesterday I said that we'd have to wait and see if Nintendo would claim victory at this year's E3 with the unveiling of their new console, but frankly I'm not sure what to make of the hardware. It's great that Nintendo have finally come out with a HD console, but this is SIX years into the current generation, where we've had access to a HD console since 2005 when the Xbox 360 first launched and the PS3 a year later. It's hard to judge the Wii U's relevance when it comes out so late in the game. The console's controller, while certainly fancy, seems very gimmicky and besides the ability to continue play away from the main TV screen seems to offer very little in terms of gameplay value - whether what it does offer makes up for the bulky, uncomfortable looking design remains to be seen.
So, I don't know. I think Sony's conference had a lot more fanfare about it (though the orchestra for the Zelda section here was a very nice touch), with a lot more emphasis on the hardcore games and giving a lot more detail on upcoming releases. At this moment in time, I'm also more impressed with the techincal prowess of the portable PlayStation Vita than the questionable Wii U, and as that was Nintendo's main gambit it could go either way as to whether their conference this year was a total bust depending upon how the console fares in the months up until its release in next year. Thankfully, the 3DS line-up that was announced was very nice, with some quality titles on the way later this year.
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